Democratic campaigners have essentially abandoned Florida, spending almost no money promoting Vice President Kamala Harris in the nation's biggest battleground state, where polls show former President Donald Trump with a large lead.
In September 2020 alone, President Joe Biden's campaign spent $38 million on television advertising in the state, while President Trump spent $19 million, NBC News reported. Reported, Data taken from AdImpact.
During the 2022 midterm elections, national Democratic organizations spent $2 million in Florida, a significant decrease from the roughly $60 million they spent in the state during the last midterm election cycle.
The media outlet noted that Democrats have spent just $2.1 million total on presidential television ad campaigns this election cycle.
“The decline in spending reflects election assessments by the Cook Political Report, which indicate statewide races are less competitive than they once were,” AdImpact's analysisPublished on Wednesday, state.
NBC's Matt Dixon described the phenomenon as “the first time in recent political memory” that Democrats have “I left Florida relatively behind.”
The apparent lack of financial support from Democrats at the national level has some state party officials expressing concern about a lack of “substantial investment.”
“The work we've done and the grassroots momentum will put Florida in a competitive position in 2024,” Eden Jagnorios, a spokesperson for the Florida Democratic Party, told NBC. “Imagine what we could accomplish with some real investment.”
Recent opinion polls Several polling organizations, including McLaughlin and Associates, suggest Trump holds a strong lead over Harris in the state. investigation The survey of 800 voters conducted August 6-8 showed the former president leading his Democratic opponent by eight points.
Recent USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV investigation The survey of 500 Florida voters showed Trump leading Harris by five points (47 percent, to the vice president's 42 percent).
A recent memo circulated by the state's Democratic Party said the party is, in fact, very active in the state.
“This stands in stark contrast to the virtually nonexistent Trump operation in Florida, where our organizers rallied to deliver a humiliating defeat to Ron DeSantis, the first real test of this election cycle,” the memo said. This came after several school board candidates endorsed by DeSantis lost in the Aug. 20 primary.
According to Dixon, it was the governor's “first real political defeat in years.”
Daniel Alvarez, a senior adviser to Trump, told reporters that Florida is “Trump country” and it's a waste of time to report on it, adding that it's “just as embarrassing as Kamala Harris wasting her time in Florida.”
Harris has not visited the state since switching over to Biden as the Democratic nominee in July, and will send her husband, vice presidential candidate Doug Emhoff, in her place for an upcoming tour of battleground states, NBC reported.
“For people who keep asking me whether Harris can win here, the answer is complicated,” said Steve Scheer, a longtime Florida Democratic activist. Written in an opinion piece for Florida Politics last month.
“The reality is, their math doesn't go through the state of Florida, so without the spending required to win, the answer is almost certainly no.”
